Generating the listener’s interest in your message is the single most critical element in an effective telephone track, and like each part of a well organised track there structure and technique in how to achieve it.

As I have stressed throughout this mini-series, there is structure and methodology in building the entire telephone track. Knowing how to do so should be a core skill for any adviser, and yet it appears that it is often unknown. The result is too many advisers begin too many calls with little more than a nice opening line and a clear objective for the call – and in between those two things they wing it.

The ad hoc method of dialling and then just running on instinct leads to rambling and ineffective telephone calls, and often the loss of good prospects and clients simply because they lost interest in what seemed like either a pointless conversation, or one which was a blatant sales call. Of course, virtually every outbound phone call an adviser makes is to sell something: selling the need to make a critical decision in a tight timeframe perhaps; or maybe selling the need to step back and take a strategic look at the entire plan again; or that toughest of calls which is selling the need for the client to consider something unpalatable – something that they must do, but we know they won’t want to. Whatever the reason, we are usually having to sell someone on doing something when we pick the phone up to call them.

So professional financial advisers have to be able to “sell”. And we especially have to be able to sell on the telephone, which is harder than selling in person. The absence of body language and verbal cues makes communication a little more difficult unless we think and prepare carefully beforehand about how to be most effective. It is important to understand that an effective telephone track is not a sales script. It is not a set of clever words designed to trick someone into giving you a “yes”. It is a way of constructing and delivering a message in such a way that people can easily comprehend it and engage with you. The process looks like this:

In this weeks Quick Tips video we continue with the third in the mini-series on how to build effective telephone technique deliberately!

In this weeks video the focus is all on generating interest in your message so that you can achieve the purpose of your call….

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Comments (2)

I’m shocked there aren’t more comments on this series. You’re doing a great job of highlighting basic things any person can do when picking up the phone. For the Attention piece, just be different than any other phone calls they have received that day. How can you be different? The words you use and more importantly the enthusiasm and tone of your voice. You can’t bore someone into listening so make sure you aren’t boring.